Power blade control for road graders



July 25, 11933. GARDNER 1,919,648

POWER BLADE CONTROL FOR ROAD GRADERS Filed Aug. 27, 1931 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 m Z54; TUE 50555 EAHDNER.

July 25, 1933. G. GARDNER POWER BLADE CONTROL FOR ROAD GRADERS Filed Aug. 27, 1931 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FILE. 5.

III/IIlI/III/IlI/IIIIIIIIII JNVENTUH- EE'UEE'E' EAEDNEE AT TUfEA/EY5 Patented July 25, 1933 GEORGE GABDNER OII REDLAKDS, CALIFORNIA.

rowm BLADE conraor. non ROAD easnnns I Application ma August 27, 1931. Serial no. 559332.

which may he coiitrolled by the operator of.

the grader to either raise and ower the blade as a whole or tiltthis either upwardly or downwardly on one side as desired, or to vary not only the depth of the cut bythe height of the blade but to change the tilt of the blade as well. v

Another object and feature of my invention is, preferably, to use a source of power, such as an engine, which may he continuously operating and which will operate a system of gears in a gear box, these gears having a connection to mechanism for raising, lowering, or tilting the hladeand by means of clutches controlled by the operator, the gear train may be utilized to convey a drive operation to the raising and lowerin mechanism in such a manner to raise an lower the blade as a whole or to tilt the blade up on one side and down on the other, or vice versa.

In connection with my invention, with one type of grader, there is a standard equipment of a pair of rock shafts extending longitudinally of the grader and each having a crank at the front connected to a link. These rock shafts are operated through a geared connection and large hand wheels adjacent the rear end of the grader there being a platform on whichthe operator may stand to operate these wheels. The direction in which these wheels are rotated governs the rocking of'the rock arms and, hence, the operation of the cranks and links, and the links are connected to the lolade carrying frame of the grader to raise and lower. the frame as a whole or to tilt the frame in order to tilt the blade. 50 Another object and feature, therefore, of

my invention, is adapting my powerdrive construction to actuate this standard e ui ment, replacing the hand operated whee s y a cared connection.

one form of my invention I- employ two parallel shafts, one of which is directly driven by a prime mover, such as an engine, may be considered the main shaft, and the other a countershaft: A drive is communicated from the main to a countershaft by a suitable geared connection and from the main shaft to a loose lever on the countershaft.

Another drive is communicated by the countershaft to a loose sleeve on the main 85 shaft. Each of the sleeves has a clutch element, such as a clutch disk, secured thereto. Intermediary of these disks there is a sliding clutch element having a pair of disks engageable with either of the disks on the sleeves. These latter. disks are on a sliding collar which is free to rotate on the main and the countershaft and each of these collars has a gear with a drive to a transmission shaft which leads to the conventional drive mechanism. I

In another form of my invention I may have a positive drive from the main to the countershaft by a geared connection and provide each of these gears with a clutch face engagealole by two clutches on opposite sides slidably on the shafts and operable one at a time to engage the clutch face on either side of a gear. Each. of these clutches is mounted on a clutch collar, which collar has a gear connected thereto, and such gear drives the transmission shaft for actuating the conventional grader mechanism.

My invention is illustrated in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. l is a plan of a typical grader with my invention mstalled thereon;

Fig. 2 is a horizontal section on the line 2--2 of Fig. 3, showing the gear and transmission loox and gears therem embodied in one form of my invention;

Fig. '3 is a vertical section on the line 33 of Fig. 2 in the direction of the arrows through the main shaft;

Fig. 4 is a transverse vertical section on the line 4-4 of Fig. 2 in the direction of the arrows;

Fig. 5 is a vertical section on the line 55 of Fig. 2 in the direction of the arrows through the countershaft, parts of the casing being omitted;

Fig. 6 is a plan of a modified construction;

Fig. 7 is a plan through the gear case of the transmission showing the gears on one shaft in section;

Fig. 8 is a vertical section onthe line 8-8 of Fig. 7 in the direction of the arrows.

In the illustration of Fig. 1, aconventional grader is indicated as having side frame beams 11, below which there is suspended a frame 12 which carries the blade 13. This frame is connected to a transverse beam 14 and this transverse beam may be considered as suspended by links 15, these latter being connected to cranks 16, which cranks are oscillated by rock shafts 17. A

geared connection 18 to the shafts 17 is substantially standard construction, this geared connection being adjacent the operators platform 19. In the prior constructions,

large hand wheels were connected to the geared connections 18 to be manually manipulated, hence, to actuate the transmission shafts and control the elevation and tilting of the blade.

In my construction I use a pair of transmission shafts 20, each having a geared connection 21 with each transmission 18. These transmission shafts extend longitudinally of the grader and, manifestly, when such shafts are rotated they actuate the geared connections in very much the same manner as such geared connections have been manipulated by the large hand wheels.

The grader frame is modified by constructing an engine bed 22 in which there is illustrated as mounted an engine 23, preferably an internal combustion type, this being illustrated as having a fly wheel 24, a universal joint 25 actuating a primary drive or main shaft 26 which extends longitudinally of the grader.

A substantial gear case 27 is mounted in the frame of the grader and is suitably supported, and through this extends the main shaft 26, there being suitable journals 28. A countershaft 29 is also mounted in this gear box and has similar j'ournals 30 to those of the main shaft. The main shaft has a primary gear 31 keyed thereto, which latter drives the primary gear 32 which is keyed on the countershaft, thus transmitting motion from the main to the countershaft. The main shaft also has a primary clutch sleeve 33 keyed thereon. This has a sprocket gear 34 and there is a sprocket chain drive 35 to a similar sprocket 36 on a primary clutch sleeve 37, which is rotatably mounted on the countershaft 29. Thus, there is a positive drive communicated from the main "mounted on the main shaft.

shaft through this sprocket chain gear to the clutch sleeve 37 on the countershaft.

The above equipment is mounted on one end of the main and countershafts. On the opposite end of the countershaft there is a primary-clutch sleeve 38 which is keyed to the shaft and has a sprocket gear 39 which drives a sprocket chain 40. This sprocket chain operates on a sprocket gear 41 on a primary clutch sleeve 42, which is rotatably Hence, by this arrangement as the countershaft is positively driven it transmits a continuous rotary motion to the sleeve 42 which is loose on the main shaft.

Each of the sleeves 33, 37, 38, and 42 is provided with a primary clutch disk 43, and each disk may have a friction surface 44. These are illustrated as flat disks although, manifestly, other types might be utilized.

It will thus be seen that on the main and the countershaft, there are two clutch disks facing each other, and between these there is a secondary clutch collar 45 on the main shaft and 46 on the countershaft. Each of these collars has a secondary sprocket gear 47 connected thereto to rotate with the collar and each of these sprocket wheels has a sprocket chain drive 48 to one of the transmission shafts 20. Thus, a drive may be obtained from the clutch collars in accordance with the operation of these and the transmission shafts.

Each of the clutch collars is operated by a slidable yoke 49, such yoke having two side bars 50. These bars operate through guides 51 in the end of the gear casing and through interior guides 52. Each yoke is connected by a bent rod 53 to the longitudinal rod 54, such latter rods being operated by clutch levers 55 which may be of the usual. type.

From the above description-it will be noted that either of the hand levers 55 may be operated to draw out or to thrust inwardly on the yokes 49, and these may be operated so that one of the rock shafts 17 is oscillated in one direction or the other to raise or lower one side of the blade. levers are operated in an opposite direction, one side of the blade will be raised while the other is lowered, and if they are both operated in the same direction the blade will either be raised or lowered.

In the construction of Figs. 6, 7, and 8, I employ the same type of rock shaft 17 for operating the links 15 to raise and lower the frame carrying the blade and also illustrate the engine 23 operating the drive or main shaft 57. In this construction, the gear case or gear box 56 has two shafts 57 and 58 journaled therein, the shaft 57 being illustrated as connected to and driven by the engine 23. Each of the shafts 57 and 58 If the carries a central gear 59, thesegears'having peripheral teeth 60 to interengage. Thereand fore, the drive from the engine is communicated by these main or primary gears from the shaft 57 to the shaft 58. Each of these gears is illustrated as havingtwo primary or main clutch faces 61 and 62, these being indicated as beveled.

Slidably mounted on each of the shafts 57 and 58 and on opposite sides of the central gears there are clutch hubs 63a, 63b, 63c, and 6307, each hub having a-disk 64, such disk having an inwardly turned flange 65 with a secondary clutch facing 66 thereon to engage with the cone-shaped clutch face 61 or 62. Each of the hubs is provided with an annular groove 67. To operate these clutches, that is, to reciprocate them, I employ a clutch operating rod 68 with a clutch operating sleeve 69 thereon. The sleeve is slidably mounted in bearings 70 and 71 in the gear case and the rod slides in the sleeve. The rear end of the sleeve is supported in a bearing 72 adjacent the rear end of the machine. The sleeve has a lateral arm 73 thereon which is connected by a link 74 to the clutch lever 75. The terminal end 76 of the rod is connected by a link 77 to the other clutch lever 78. Therefore, by these levers, the sleeve or the rod may be reciprocated independently and in the same or opposite directions or one reciprocated and the other remain stationary, as desired. The sleeve is illustrated as having yokes79, each yoke having an arm 80 with lateral branches 81 fitting in the grooves 67. One oke connects with the clutch hub 630 the opposite yoke to the clutch hub 63d.

The rod is illustrated as provided with two operating yokes 82, these being diametrically opposite and one operating on the clutch hub 63b and the other on the clutch hub 6,30. The sleeve has cutout notches 83 to accommodate the arm of the yoke 82 slidable relative to the sleeve.

The clutch hub 63a. is illustrated as having I a-sprocket secondary gear 84 and the hu 63d as having a sprocket secondary gear 85. These sprocket gears have sprocket chains 86 which lead upwardly on an inclination to the transmission shafts 20. In Fig. 6 these transmission shafts are illustrated as being substantially directly over the shafts 57 and 58 but it is obvious that this arrangement is not necessary. The shafts 20 may be spaced radially different distances apart from the shafts 57 and 58 and the drive connection may be downwardly instead of upwardly. These gears 84 and 85 are shown as being mounted on the ends of their respective clutch hubs.

The hubs 63b and 630 are illustrated as having secondary sprocket gears 87 and 88, each of which carries a sprocket chain 89, which sprocket chains are shown as leading on the clutch hub 6311 with the clutch on its main gear. Therefore, the drive will be carried by the sprocket gear 85 to one of the transmission shafts. Likewise, should the sleeve 69 be thrust in the opposite direction a reverse connection will be obtained so that the drive will be in the shaft 57 through the sprocket gear 84 to one of the transmission shafts. In a similar manner, should the operating rod 68 be ulled outwardly, it will disengage the clutch disk on the hub 630 from its mam. driving gear, that is, carried by the shaft 58, andwill connect the disk on the hub 63b to its main gear and thus to the shaft 57. Hence, the sprocket gear 87 will drive one of the transmission shafts. A thrust inwardly of the rod 68 will cause a reverse action and give the drive to the transmission shaft from the shaft 58.

It is obvious, therefore, that either the sleeve 69 or the rod 68 may be operated singly in either direction in which case one end only of the blade will be raised or lowered, or, if desired, these may be operated in opposite directions, in which case when one end of the blade is raised the opposite end .will be lowered or both sleeve and rod may be operated inithe same direction, in which case the blade will be bodily raised or bodily lowered. This pe of gear change and transmission, there ore, gives the same performance as the transmission and gear change of Figs. 1 through 5. p In the construction of Figs. 2 through 4, I employ rollers 55' which are mounted on studs 55", these being attached to the arms 50 of the yokes 49. These wheels have a slight clearance between the disks and function to transmit the motion from the rods to the disks on the clutch collars 45 and 46.

Various changes may be made in the details of construction without departing from the spirit or sco of the inventlon as defined by the appendeg claims.

Iclailm. 1. In a' road grader, the combination of a grading blade, an engine, a main shaft driven thereby, a countershaft driven by the main shaft, clutches on each of the main and the countershafts, rs operatively associated with the clutc es, mechanical connections from said gears to control the blade, said clutches being operative to interconnect said gears. with the main or countershafts to raise or lower the blade bodily or to tilt the blade to opposite inclinations.

2. In a road grader, the combination of an engine, a main and a countershaft, the main shaft being driven by the engine, a primary gear connection from the main to the countershaft, said gears having a constant driving relation to said shafts, secondary gears on each shaft, clutches associated with said primary and secondary gears, a grader blade, connections from the secondary gears to the blade, said secondary gears being selectively operative through said clutches to bodily raise or lowcr'the blade or to tilt the blade in opposite directions.

8. In a road grader, the combination of a main and a countershaft, means to drive the main shaft, a geared connection from the main to the countershaft, a primary clutch element on each of said shafts, secondary clutch elements slidably mounted on each of said shafts, secondary gears connected to the secondary clutch elements, a blade, and connections between the secondary gears and the blade, the secondary clutch elements being operative to form a connection with the primary clutch element to bodily raise or lower the blade or to tilt the blade in opposite directions.

4. In a road grader, the combination of a main and a countershaft, means to rotate the main shaft, a geared connection between the main and the countershaft to rotate both shafts in unison in opposite directions, a plurality of clutches on each shaft, each clutch havin a primary element rotating with the sha 't and a secondary element slidable on the shaft, a secondary gear connected to each of the secondary clutch elements, a blade, mechanical connections from the secondary gears to the blade, and means to opcrate the clutches to effect the bodily raising or lowering of the blade or to tilt the blade in two opposite directions.

5. In a road grader, the combination of a main and a countershaft, means to rotate the main shaft, a geared connection from the main to the countershaft, a pair of clutches on each shaft, each clutch having a primary element rotatable with the shaft, and having a secondary element slidable on the shaft to engage the primary element, an operating means for the clutches to simultaneously operate one clutch on the main shaft and another clutch on the countershaft, and means to operate the other clutch on the main shaft and the other clutch on the countershaft simultaneously, a blade, and a connection from each of the clutch elements to operate the blade, said connec tion providing for bodily raising and lowering the blade or tilting the blade in opposite directions.

6. In a road grader, the combination of a main and a countershaft, means to simultaneously drive said shafts, a first and a second clutch on each of said shafts, said clutches being considered as numbered from the same end of the shafts, means to actuate said clutches to interconnect the first clutch on the main shaft and to disconnect the second clutch on the countershaft or vice versa, or to interconnect the second clutch on the main shaft and disconnect the first clutch on the countershaft or vice versa, a blade, and means to interconnect the blade with the clutches, whereby on control of the clutches the blade may be raised or lowered or tilted in opposite directions.

7. In a road grader, the combination of a main shaft, means to drive said shaft, 2. countershaft, a drive connection from the main to the countershaft, a main clutch element on each of said shafts having two faces, a first and a second secondary clutch element slidable on each shaft and each having an operating face to engage with one of the faces of the primary clutch element on such shaft, the secondary clutch elements being considered from the same ends of their shafts, a slidable means to actuate the clutch elements whereby the first of the secondary elements on the main shaft and the second on the countershaft may be operated simultaneously, or the first on the countershaft and the second on the main shaft may be operated simultaneously, a gear connected to each of the secondary clutch elements, a blade, and a connection from each of said latter gears to the blade whereby on operation of said slidable means the blade may be controlled by bodily lifting or lowering or tilting in opposite directions.

8. In a road grader as claimed in claim 7, the connections to the blade including a pair of rock shafts, and a connection from. the first of the secondary clutch elements on the main and the countershaft to one of the rock shafts and from the second of the clutch elements on the main and the countershaft to the other rock shaft.

9. In a road grader, the combination of a main and a countershaft, means to drive the main shaft, a primary gear drive from the main to the countershaft, a pair of clutches on each of the shafts, each clutch having a primary element rotated by the shaft, and secondary elements engageable therewith at will, a pair of rock shafts, a blade, a connection from the rock shafts to the blade, and a driving connection from a first clutch on the main shaft and the first clutch on the countershaft to one of the rock shafts and from the second clutch on the countershaft and the second clutch on the main shaft to the other rock shaft, and means to at will interconnect the first and second clutches on either of the shafts to bodily raise or lower the blade or to tilt the blade in opposite directions.

a main and a countershaft, means to drive the main shaft, a dprimary gear drive be-- tween the main an the countershaft rotati'ng said shafts in opposite directions said primary gears being located centrally of the shafts, a pair of clutches on each s aft, each clutch havin a primary clutch face on opposite sides 0 each of said gears and having a pair of clutch hubs shdab y mounted on each shaft, said hubs belng onopposite sides of the gear on its shaft, and each clutch hub having a clutch face to enga e with the central rimary clutch faces able operating s eeve having a slidable rod mounted therein, the sleeve havin a air of yokes one connected to the clutc hu on one side of one primary gear and to the clutch hub on the remote side of the other primary gear, the rod having a pair of yokes connected to a clutch hub on one side of one gear and to the clutch hub on the opposite side of the rimary gear on the opposite shaft, each Cl lltCh hub having a gear w1th a sprocket chain connected thereto, a pair of rock shafts, a blade, means interconnecting said latter shafts and the blade, and a sprocket chain connection from the clutch hubs on one side of the primary ears to one rock shaft and from the clutch ubs on the opposite side of said primary gears to the opposite rock shaft.

11. In a road grader as claimed in claim 10, said clutch hubs with their clutch faces being connectible and disconnectible from the primary clutch faces wherebysaid rock shafts may have a positive drive inopposlte directions to raise or lower the blade and in the same direction for tilting the blade in opposite directions, and in such operation. one of the sprocket chains connected to each shaft operating idly.

12. In a road grader, the combination of a main and a countershaft, means to drive the main shaft, 2. drive from the main to the countershaft, two clutch sleeves on each shaft at opposite ends thereof with a drive connection from a clutch sleeve on the main shaft to a complementary clutch sleeve on the countershaft, and from the clutch sleeve on the countershaft to a com lementary clutch sleeve on the main sha t, a clutch collar loosely mounted on each shaft and slidable thereon between the clutch sleeves on such shaft, the sleeves and the collar having clutch faces, means to slide both of the clutch collars simultaneously in the same direction or in opposite directions, a gear drive from each of the clutch collars,- a blade, an operative connection from said drive to said blade whereby the blade may be raised or lowered bodily or tilted to one inclination or an opposite inclination.

13. In a road rader, a grader frame, a pair of rock sha s journaled thereon each having a crank and a link, a blade frame connected to the links, said frame carrying a blade, an engine mounted on the grader frame, a drive connection from the engine,

primary ality of a connection from the secondary gears to said rock shafts, and means to 0 rate said clutches whereby the rock sha may be rotated simultaneously in opposite directions to bodily raise or lower the blade frame or may be operated in the same direction to tilt or incline the blade frame against the blade.

14. In a road grader, the-combination of a ader frame, a pair of rock shafts 'onr- 11 ed thereon, each having a crank with a link, a blade frame connected to the links and having a blade, an engine, a gear and clutch transmission, and having a main and a countershaft, the engine driving the main shaft and a driving connection from the main shaft to the countershaft, said main and countershafts having a primary clutch element and a secondary clutch element the primary clutch elements being non-slidable on their shafts and the secondary clutch elements being slidable, the primary clutch elements having an interconnecting drive from the opposite clutch elements on the main and countershaft, the secondary clutch element on each shaft having a drive connecand secondary e(gears with a pluclutches interm iary of said gears,

tion to one of said rock shafts, said clutch elements being operable whereby said rock shafts may be rotated simultaneously in the same or in an opposite direction or both rotated in opposite directions.

15. In a road grader, a grader frame having a blade frame with a blade thereon, a control platform, a fpair of rock shafts extending forwardly om the platform and each 0 eratively connected to a part of the blade ame, a main and a countershaft each having gears and clutches thereon, a pair of driven shafts, one being operatively con-- nected to the gears of the main and the other to, the gears of the countershaft,.a geared drive connection between the driven shafts and the rock shafts, a clutch control means mounted on the platform and operative to actuate the clutches of the mam and the countershaft to control therock shafts for bodily raising and lowerin the blade or for tilting the blade in either irection.

16. In a road grader, a grader frame, a blade carrying frame having a blade, a pair of rock'shafts, an o'peratin connection between each of the rock sha s and the side of the blade carrying frame, a pair of transmission shafts, a drive connection between each transmission shaft and a rock shaft, a main and a countershaft, means to drive the main shaft, a drive connection from the main to the countershaft, the main and countershaft each havin a primary clutch element thereon and s dable secondary clutch elements, a drive connection from, the slidable clutch elements on both the main and the countershaft to the transmission shafts, and means to slide the secondary clutch elements to engage with the primary clutch elements to bodily raise and lower the blade carrying frame or to tilt said frame in either direction.

17. In a road grader, a grader frame havthe main shaft, a drive connection from the main to the conntersha-ft, the main and the conntershaf't each having a primary clutch element and a secondary clutch element slidable thereon, an operating connection from said platform to the slidablc clutch elements to slide such elements on their respective main or countershafts, a drive transmission from each secondary clutch element to one of the transmission shafts whereby by opera tion of the primary and secondary clutch elements the rock shafts may be operated to raise and lower the blade carrying frame as a unit or to tilt such frame with one side up and the other down or vice versa.

GEORGE GARDNER. 

